日中関係

Of course the process is complicated by numerous factors. One of the factors is prejudice. As you mentioned earlier, for Chinese, <militarism = Japan>. Don't argue whether that is true or not at this point. Just ask "why?" Why would Chinesepeople have that perception? I guess that one of the reasons is education. However, why would Chinese people accept such education? There is a famous saying that "those who go to study in America ends up liking America and those who go to study in Japanends up disliking Japan." Do not ask whether that is the right attitude or not. Just ask why that happens? In mainland China, no matter how the government says US is bad, Chinese intellectuals still say "no, there are a lot of good things in America andAmerica is a dream place for academic studies and activities." On the other hand, when the government says Japan is bad, every intellectual joins the chorus of "Japan bashing." Why? As you mentioned, Chinese education contains a lot of patriotic educationwhose primary contents include "fighting" "American imperialism", "Japanese militarism", and "Soviet revisionism." There are numerous pro-American and pro-Soviet intellectuals in China, but there is no pro-Japanese. Why? Isn't this bad Japan? I think thatthis has great implications and which must be dealt with immediately. Going over there and say Chinese people are all crazy nuts or military fanatics is not going to get you anywhere. Not only will it be bad for your health, it will also "add oil to thefire."

However, I'm not blaming it all on Japan. No doubt, China is not perfect itself. There are many areas which still need great improvement. If you go to Chinese message board, besides some anti-Japanese remarks, you'll find tons of tons of criticisms oncertain government policies. If you know how to read Chinese, I would be happy to give you a few sites and let you see the real picture. In short, Chinese intellectuals are in no way proud of their country yet; they find too many shortcomings in their ownmotherland.

Therefore, I think that both Chinese and Japanese people should calm themselves down for a moment and begin by searching for some common ground. And "searching for common ground" is the foundation for establishing constructive relations andany kind of negotiations.

Thank you.